To the outsider, tai chi must seem to be inordinately concerned with
structure.
A considerable amount of time and attention is placed upon alignment, body
usage and awareness.
Other martial arts spend significantly less time on these matters.
Yet, without optimal use of the body at all times, we cannot maximise
our strength and reduce our weaknesses.

Learning structure

Yang Cheng Fu's 10 essentials and other guidelines teach us how to use our
body.
What they seldom teach is why.
A student needs to attend a class which explores the
Way in which the body
works in combat and everyday life.
It is necessary to be scientific.
To find out for yourself what works and what does not.

Habits

Our aim is to cultivate a loose, flexible network of body parts. Integrated, flowing, smooth and responsive.
New starters cannot just drop a lifetime of bad habits.
They need to be gently steered towards understanding and change.
By recognising the validity of an integrated, relaxed framework, it is
easier for a person to let-go of the past.

If you cannot use your own body in a balanced, natural, cohesive manner, how
do you expect to defeat an opponent?
Most people rely upon local muscle strength.
They tense-up in combat.
They struggle.

Struggling?

Tai chi is not about fighting.
You must remain calm, composed, relaxed.
Not caught-up in the excitement and
fear of combat.
By paying serious attention to your body,
mind and emotions you can address
your own concerns.
Once you are integrated, balanced and aware, you can consider manipulating
an opponent.

The softest will then become the strongest

Having gained a measure of structure in solo practice, the real test is
partner work and combat training.
You may believe yourself to be relaxed and responsive.
Working with somebody else may prove otherwise.Sensitivity is a difficult skill to master.
In truth, it can never be mastered because you can always improve it.
Unless your body can be used in the appropriate way relative to an opponent,
all of your training is for nothing.
The real challenge is to be soft.
To employ peng, jing,
stickiness and grace.

Framework

Many students possess a small smattering of abilities,
but typically lack the capacity to consistently apply these
skills.
The fault lies with structure.
Without a working, comfortable, familiar framework, your abilities will not
work when you most need them.

The main means of training framework is 'form', and for most students form
is a significant area of weakness.
Partnered drills and qigong exercises supplement form and give you
the opportunity to practice and test the validity of the tai chi body
mechanics.
Without structure, you are vague, and incapable of having your abilities at
your fingertips whenever you need them.
It is necessary to contain, to shape, to focus.
Structure provides this.

Application

The body mechanics cultivated in qigong exercises are used
throughout the form.
Aspects of the form are utilised in partnered drills designed to increase
your capacity to apply the tai chi principles.

Function

Every student needs to recognise the purpose of each drill and see how the
skills extend into actual combat. Theory is not enough.Drills are essentially abstract.
They teach habit patterns in the body: reflexes.
You must take the insights, tactics and body skills into a
combat situation.
Only by doing this can you complete the circle and give meaning to the
drill, and in turn the tai chi.

If your form adheres too rigidly to a primitive introductory shape, then you
cannot reasonably use it in combat.
The 'square form' that beginners learn was designed to teach the outline, the
pattern.
It does not teach any neigong.
There is no internal body work taking place at all.

How?

It is necessary to learn how the body is working and how the power is being
generated.
Every movement must be dismantled, understood, enhanced and applied.
Unless you take the form much further, it cannot be used in combat. The
structure must be dynamic, fluid, protean.
Every movement feels natural, comfortable and powerful.

Wishy-washy tai chi lacks the primal. It looks and feels
insubstantial and
weak.
Such practice cannot be used in actual combat.
Even if the student is perfectly aligned, it is not enough.

Spirit

There must be spirit.
Without feeling, without immersion in the event itself, the form remains
poor.
You can see when a student imbue their form with shen. It looks quite
different. Alive. Predatory. Applicable.

The danger facing many students is that their structure is incorrect.
There is a rigidity to it that essentially prevents freedom of movement.
This is not tai chi.
A student must be nimble and responsive, sensitive and
alert.
Clumsiness is simply not acceptable.
You must learn to feel.
To move freely and easily. To act. To
project energy.

The key ingredient in structure is not the body.
Aligning the body is necessary, and helpful, but underlying the physical
concerns is the mind.
Unless you have clarity and focus, you cannot unite the body and use it.Train your mind.
Sharpen it. Hone it.
To quote Yang Cheng Fu: "Use mind, not force".